May 8, 2013 10:24 PM

I snapped this beauty this morning in central Spain. It was obviusly female as it was digging a burrow. Unfortunately there is nothing like it in my field guide (Chinery, Insects of Britain and Western Europe). Does anyone know what it is? It was about 2.5 cm long.

Thanks for the reply. I've made an enlarged crop of the area of the thorax.

The red bumps are very symmetrical as you observed. Unless the beetle has some weakness in its exoskelton at this point I can't see why there would be two mites on each side in the same place. Also there is no evidence of mite's legs so I strongly suspect this is part of the beetle.

I couldn't find this beetle either, hence the question. Obviously, it isn't one of those found in the UK!

This is the beautiful Physomeloe corallifer. This species, the only of the genus, is endemic of southern half or Iberian peninsula. It's a spring species like the much more common Berberomeloe majalis, and, like this species, it shows a curious evolutive convergence with genus Meloe despite not being closely related with that genus (both Berberomele and Physomeloe are related with Lytta more than with Meloe).